F2 | Feature Race | Saudi Arabian GP | Verschoor storms to victory - Motorsport

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A strategy masterclass and a brilliant drive from MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor saw him victorious during the F2 Feature Race at the Saudi Arabian GP.

After a disappointing Sprint Race for the Dutchman after losing the win yesterday, Verschoor was unstoppable at the front of the field. After an eventful Feature Race, DAMS’ Jak Crawford finished closely behind in P2 with ART GP’s Victor Martins taking the last step of the podium, full report and results below.

However, it is worth noting that after the Sprint Race concluded yesterday, the stewards handed 10-second time penalties to ART GP’s Ritomo Miyata and VAR’s John Bennett for separate incidents, resulting in their demotion to P19 and P20 respectively — though it had no impact on their races today.

Lights out and away we go for the Feature Race!

Polesitter DAMS’ Jak Crawford got a great launch off the line and led the pack down into T1, with Victor Martins and Leonardo Fornaroli who slotted in behind him. Early moves for Arvid Lindblad as he tried to go around the outside of Luke Browning, but failed to do so, ran off the track and lost a place.

Pepe Martí was next to make a move on Lindblad as they headed into T1, as he moved himself up to P6. Richard Verschoor and Roman Stanek started on the medium compound tyres were two drivers on a different strategy compared to the other front runners in the points.

Headed into Lap 5, Crawford had broke DRS between him and Martins as he held on well to the race lead. A big lockup Fornaroli as he headed into the penultimate corner of the lap. However, a charging Browning was chasing Fornaroli down. Having ran wide, a costly mistake from Fornaroli at T22 allowed Browning and Alex Dunne to sail past him.

First drivers to head in for pitstops

Martí, Minì and Fornaroli were the first drivers to swap their super soft tyres for mediums. It was a slow stop for Martí as Campos struggled to get a wheel on. Following the pitstops, replayed showed John Bennett getting front-wing damage which had left a lot of debris on the track.

Despite the possibility of a safety car, Crawford led much of the field into the pits. With Martins behind, the Frenchman was then let out into clear air. As cameras panned in the pitlane as Sami Meguetonif seemed to have an issue during his pitstop, and ultimately decided to retire their car.

After staying out for an extra lap, Martins boxed the next. It was a tight exit between Martins and Crawford, but managed to stay ahead of the American.

Virtual Safety Car for debris on Lap 9

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed to clean up the debris of Bennett’s front-wing. Replayed showed Dunne running off wide into T1. Browning, who was in front of the Irishman, was quick to take avoidance and momentarily ran wide.

As Martins snatched the net-race lead, the Frenchman defended against Crawford. The duo headed all the way into T4 side-by-side and managed to just hold on to the race lead. The American and Martins continued to fight, with the DRS flap open, Crawford sailed past Martins easily.

DRS train in the mid-field battle led by Browning

Further down the field, Martí’s beautiful overtake down the inside of Dunne into T27 moved him up a place for now. Browning led a mini DRS train, as Martí, Dunne, Minì and Lindblad followed behind. Meanwhile, Verschoor continued to maintain a stable lead out in front on his old set of mediums. Headed into T1, Browning, Martí, and Dunne were three-wide as the Spaniard finally made his overtake on the Williams Academy driver. After having ran wide several times, the black and white flag was shown for Browning a lap later.

Whilst Verschoor was flying ahead at the front, Dunne received a five-second time penalty for his scrap with Browning. Ollie Goethe and Roman Stanek were not afraid to get their elbows out as the pair attempted several overtakes on each other.

Option tyre runners stop on Lap 21

On Lap 21, Goethe was the first of the option tyre runners to put on the super soft tyres and slotted back into the field behind Sebastian Montoya. Kush Main and Roman Stanek were next to pit a lap later. Meanwhile, Verschoor’s blistering pace out infront were unbeatable as there was a 26 second gap between him and Crawford, who were in the net-race lead.

On Lap 24, Verschoor finally pitted for his super-soft tyres. Everyone held their breaths as the MP driver exited the pits. With MP’s impressively quick pitstop, Verschoor managed to stay ahead of Martins.

Final two laps

After having been stuck behind Minì for several laps, Lindblad made his long-awaited overtake on the PREMA driver as they headed into T1. Verschoor continued eating into the gap between him and Crawford. Into the last lap, Verschoor got into DRS range and charged past the DAMS driver into T1.

Driving MP Motorsport to the win, Verschoor responded brilliantly to the disappointments of yesterday to win from P9.